Michael Mann takes a break from bidding for an Oscar with a return to the dark, gritty style he pioneered back in his Miami Vice days. Collateral is a taut thriller carried equally by Mann's direction and bravura performances by Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise.
Foxx plays Max, a Los Angeles taxi driver with big dreams and a slight obsessive compulsive disorder. Max keeps his cab sparkling clean and knows L.A.'s traffic light cycles like the back of his hand. According to Max, driving a taxi is only temporary: he dreams of owning a custom limousine service, though he's been dreaming for the past 12 years.
The film kicks off with Max shuttling a pretty, work-obsessed attorney (Jada Pinkett Smith) across town. In their banter, Max's good-natured personality shines through to both his passenger and the audience. You can't help but like him. Oddly enough, you can't help but like Max's next fare, Vincent (Cruise), as well. Vincent is a hit man in the city for one night. He has five assassinations to carry out, and decides to drag Max along for the ride.
Collateral is Mann's version of a buddy film. Though Max and Vincent are at odds from almost the second they meet, there is a connection between them that drives the movie. The connection is clear no more so than when Max, forced to pretend to be Vincent for a tense meeting, acts completely out of character, and the audience buys it. The men learn from each other in the same way two fighters size each other up, examining strengths and weaknesses and then waiting for just the right moment to exploit them.
Though Cruise gets top billing, this is Foxx's movie. His portrayal of Max is immersive, creating a sympathetic protagonist that audiences can relate to, yet building layers of complexity into the role that are revealed sometimes by no more than a shift of his eyes or a nod of the head. With this film, Foxx proves that he is leading-man material, and summarily wets audiences' appetites for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Taylor Hackford's upcoming Ray.
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